Case Study: An innovative test solution for a challenging situation.
Imagine being able to cut your test development cost in half, while maintaining the same or better test coverage. Through engagement with our test engineering team, that’s exactly what one customer did. This customer was unhappy with its incumbent supplier and wanted to partner with Plexus. Because of IP rights, they were unable to transfer or duplicate the existing test solution design.
They were facing a significant challenge to introduce a new supplier as quickly as possible with a limited budget and still achieve the required test coverage. Creating a test solution similar to the original design was thought to be the cheapest and fastest way to the goal. The existing test solution approach leveraged a complex custom PCBA (FPGA, electronic components), extensive product specific test software, and multiple “known-good” products to facilitate testing. It was a time consuming and costly solution to develop. The existing solution required costly recurring maintenance and had known reliability issues.
As Plexus evaluated the approach, it became clear that a change in direction was needed to achieve cost, schedule and reliability goals. The Plexus solution leveraged a fundamentally different approach, and at first, the customer’s team didn’t believe this solution was feasible. Through further explanation, collaboration and a lab mock-up, the customer’s team was thrilled with the approach and resulting benefits. The Plexus test solution completely changed their viewpoint of what was possible and significantly alleviated current challenges.